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Last weekend I baked some of the best rolls I’ve made to date using instant yeast instead of my usual sourdough or yeast water. I didn’t have time to refresh my starter which is why I had used the instant yeast. I wanted to try a similar formula using a combo of sourdough starter and yeast water levain. I decided to leave out the cream and the eggs for this version since I didn’t want the bread to be quite as soft as the rolls even though with the oil, potatoes and polenta the final bread ended up pretty soft anyway.

The final bread tasted great with a nice sour tang but not too overpowering with a slight hint of sweetness from the honey. The crumb was nice and open and moist and the crust per above was soft. The dough did spread out more than I would have liked but overall this ended up being a nice tasty loaf. If I were to make it again, I might reduce the moisture content slightly but other than that this one is a keeper.

Procedure

I used a combination of my white sourdough starter which I keep at 66% hydration and did a 3 stage build with my fruit flavored yeast water starter.

Yeast Water Starter Build 1

50 grams Bread Flour (KAF)

50 grams Yeast Water Starter

Mix the flour and Yeast Water in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for around 4 hours. The starter should almost double when ready to proceed to build 2.

Build 2

Add ingredients below to starter from above and mix until incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 4 hours.

100 grams Bread Flour

100 grams Yeast Water

Build 3

Add flour to starter from above and mix until incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 4 hours or until bubbly and either use immediately or put in the refrigerator for the next day.

75 grams Bread Flour

Main Dough Ingredients

170 grams Refreshed AP Starter (65% hydration)

255 grams Yeast Water Starter (you may have some extra from above)

400 grams Bread Flour (KAF)

100 grams Spelt Flour

160 grams Mashed Potatoes (I like to mash them with the skins on and used red potatoes)

50 grams Olive Oil

180 grams Cooked Polenta (I used some butter and parmesan cheese in mine)

16 grams Salt (Sea Salt or Table Salt)

40 grams Honey

397 grams Water (80 to 90 degrees F.)

Procedure

Mix the starters with the water and stir to break it up and make sure to hold back about 50 grams of water. Next mix in the flours into the starter mixture and mix for 2 minutes with your mixer or by hand. Let the dough autolyse for 30 minutes to an hour in your bowl covered with a cloth or plastic wrap. Next add in the salt, mashed potatoes, polenta and oil and mix on speed #1 for 3 minutes and #2 for 2 minutes or by hand. This dough is very wet but it should start to come together after mixing but will still be very wet.

Next take the dough out of the bowl and place it on your work surface. Do a stretch and fold and rest the dough uncovered for 10 minutes. Place the dough in an oiled bowl after the rest and do another stretch and fold and cover the dough in the bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes. Do one more stretch and fold and put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and let it sit at room temperature covered for 2 hours. (If the dough is still too lose, you can do several more stretch and folds until you are ready to put in the refrigerator). After 2 hours you can put the dough into the refrigerator for 24 hours or up to 2 days before baking.

The next day (or when ready to bake) let the dough sit out at room temperature for 2 hours. After 2 hours form the dough into your desired shape and put them in floured bannetons, bowls or on a baking sheet and let them rise covered for 2 hours.

Score the loaves as desired and prepare your oven for baking with steam.

Set your oven for 500 degrees F. at least 30 minutes before ready to bake. When ready to bake place the loaves into your on your oven stone with steam and lower the temperature immediately to 450 degrees. (I made a large Miche so I ended up lowering the temperature half way through to 435 degrees). It should take around 20 – 30 minutes to bake until both loaves are golden brown and reached an internal temperature of 200 – 210 degrees F.

Let the loaves cool down for at least an hour or so before eating as desired.

Crumb Close-up

Boris the Guardian of the Sandman Residence. Natasha keeps watch in the back of our house.

2 Responses to “Polenta Potato Sourdough Yeast Water Miche”

Greetings Ian,
Tell me about your fruit flavored yeast water. I missed what that is. This recipe looks great. I made a whole wheat/multi rolled grain bread that spread out a little more than I expected, but like yours, the taste & texture was spot on.
~ Russ

Thanks Russ. I really like the flavor on this one.
I have posted several recipes using Yeast Water.
Check Out some of my older posts and if you have any questions let me know.
It’s pretty easy to make and adds another element to bread making.
Basically you take some organic fruit, raisins, cherries, etc. cut them up and put them in a mason jar with filtered water.
Add some honey and shake. You keep refreshing with some fresh fruit, raisins, etc. and honey or sugar and water for about 3-4 days until you end up with a nice bubbly yeast water concoction. Once this is ready, you would make a levain/starter by using the yeast water and mixing with flour and build it up over 2-3 builds. You end up with a nice levain that does not add sour notes to the final dough. I have been using a combo SD and YW starter which works real nice. It creates a nice open and tender crumb.